The new ‘tough’ Kim Beazley’s resolve has failed its first big environmental test, Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.

“Mr Beazley has wimped on holding to Mark Latham’s election stand to aim for national park protection for 240,000 hectares of threatened high conservation value forests,” Senator Brown said.

“Instead he’s standing cheek by jowl with John Howard’s 58,000 hectares - that is 24% of Labor’s election promise in ‘formal reserves’ open to mining. No national parks. He’s backing the Prime Minister’s renege on banning 1080 poisoning of marsupials on private land.

“And, like John Howard, his visit to Tasmania involves snubbing environmentalists, tourist operators and community groups representing the majority view that old growth logging and 1080 poisoning should stop,” Senator Brown said.

“Last week Mr Beazley said ‘We’ve not fought them with determination, and I’m as much at fault on that as anyone else’. But his determination fell flat at the first hurdle” Senator Brown said.

“Protecting Tasmania’s wild forests opens up one of the biggest fault lines in politics, with the Greens on one side and Labor and the Coalition together on the other,” Senator Brown said.